The Old Way Scholastisism: the medieval intellectual movement which tried to reconcile what we know by faith through reading divinely inspired scripture and what we know by reason & observation of the world. (Attempted to reconcile conflict between what scripture/The Bible said and what occured in the natural world...or reason)
-failed to issue moral guidance
-just used to teach theologians
-needed practical tools, like speaking and writing
The Renaissance Way Humanism: rather than glorifying God through obedience and worship, the best way to glorify God is to fully develop talents, capacities, reason, rhetoric and art (This came to be known as Italian Humanism, as opposed to Civic Humanism or Christian Humanism.)
- Classical Scholarship, the ability to read, understand and appreciate the writings of the ancient world & rhetoric to convey to others
Fathers of Humanism
Petrarch(1304-1374)
-wrote My Secret
-coin "middle ages"
-look to Virgil & church fathers for guidance
-inner peace vs temptation of fame
Boccaccio (1313-1375)
-Florentine, follower of Petrarch
-wrote The Decameron Pico
Humanism Spreads
Competition between city states, Florentines leading
gather manuscripts, form libraries, revive almost extinct ancient Greek
Writing, rhetoric, and study of classics now essential in courts, etc.
Exodus of thought & texts from Byzantium from crusades, etc. contributed to rise of humanism
Civic Humanism
Stress participation in public affairs (active lives!)
(contrary to Augustinian fears of active lifestyles and Cicero & Petrarch's indifference on the matter)
Only by seeking higher ends for self and society can one achieve virtue
Educated must share with all to benefit society and then benefit selves
Humanism's Impact
-Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) found Vatican library
-PATRONAGE
-Secular themes become more common
-works of history become more analytic
-education create a social divide
-printing books, books more available
-increase of roman law, power to one ruler
-more schools open
-vivid recreations in visual arts
-personal fame = ok (artistic and historic immortality sought freely)
-combine contemplative and active lives!
Florentine Neoplatonists (1400s)
search (w/ humanity's "natural appetite") for "ideal forms," truth and perfection again
dignity and immortality of the soul
Marsilio Ficino = Plato translation into latin for the masses
Plato was divinely illuminated (reconcilable w/ xtianity!)
Pico believed in a single truth behind all philosophies
Big Big Picture Effects
new studies of old civilizations (hebrew, archaelogy, numismatics, etc.)
standardize vernacular languages
spread across Europe, more cultural unity than since Rome had united Europe
An Outline Dealing with the Renaissance and its Cultural Implications
Question: “Although the term “Renaissance” is misleading, the modern world began with Renaissance secularism and individualism.” Assess the validity of this statement.
Introduction: The Italian Renaissance was decisive in the cultural progress of Western civilization and its eventual consequence would be the Protestant Reformation.
Thesis: The humanist possibility of individual cultivation and contribution altered the landscape of European society, so that it was no longer the warrior king or the religious authority that could incite political and social change; it was the intellectual or the artist. The Renaissance restored Greco-Roman educational ideals and inspired a return to the “Classics”. It made knowledge and consequently, ideas accessible to the general populace. With this new sort of education at their disposal, the people were transformed, from an ignorant collective mob into individuals, able to render individual unaffected judgments (giving birth to skepticism and disbelief-which led ultimately to the violation of the sacred and to secularization.)
-Elements of the Renaissance that first exhibit individualism and secularism: “the new learning” and the founding of humanism: rhetoric/Latin classics/classical monuments/educational reform>ability to read, understand, and appreciate ancient world
-Petrach>Francesco Petrarca: poetry, treatises/emulated Virgil/poet laureate/"My Secret"/cannot find model of virtuous behavior>must behave like and emulate ancients>A return to Greco-Roman ideals
-Boccaccio: friend and disciple of Petrarch, wrote the The Decameron with its frank treatment of sex and ordinary characters, is a celebration of the natural and secular world
-Spread of Humanism>rallying cry: Pope Nicholas V builds a library, literature contains purely secular themes & education becomes badge of superiority and thus inspires patronage of arts and letters
Pico’s humanism: “trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature” (true, Pico encourages the cultivation of the individual for the glorification of God, obviously this is not secular, although>it lays the foundation of European individualism>the individual’s potential to develop and to realize himself.) Ex.: Status and Perception: painter is no longer merely an anonymous hired craftsman as he was during the medieval period> he can achieve individual prestige and recognition.
-How does this relate to “the modern world”?
>If it weren’t for the Renaissance and its various developments, it’s likely that Martin Luther would not have had the audacity to publish his “95 Theses.” What the Renaissance ultimately sowed in Europe was the possibility of individual contribution and the advancement of society through these contributions. Despite his extreme diffidence towards the Catholic Church, Luther was still a dissenter. His individual education and wrought faculties allowed him to voice his disillusionment>the idea that he possessed greater wisdom than a collective, enlightened establishment was born of the Renaissance.
-Obviously, it was Luther’s Theses that would begin the long, pained undressing of the Catholic Church and would first incite skepticism amongst believers. They would also amplify the desire for anti-monarchial constitutions theories and undermine the hierarchic view of universe**
-It was the Renaissance ideal of pagan, intellectual veneration, even worship, for human creativity and possibility that was at the root of the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, etc. etc., all of which are crucial to the birth of the modern secular world. The Renaissance was a “rebirth” in the sense that it was a return to the values and methods of the ancient Greek and Roman Civilizations, to which the “modern world” owes so much.
Scholastisism: the medieval intellectual movement which tried to reconcile what we know by faith through reading divinely inspired scripture and what we know by reason & observation of the world. (Attempted to reconcile conflict between what scripture/The Bible said and what occured in the natural world...or reason)
-failed to issue moral guidance
-just used to teach theologians
-needed practical tools, like speaking and writing
The Renaissance Way
Humanism: rather than glorifying God through obedience and worship, the best way to glorify God is to fully develop talents, capacities, reason, rhetoric and art (This came to be known as Italian Humanism, as opposed to Civic Humanism or Christian Humanism.)
- Classical Scholarship, the ability to read, understand and appreciate the writings of the ancient world & rhetoric to convey to others
Fathers of Humanism
Petrarch(1304-1374)
-wrote My Secret
-coin "middle ages"
-look to Virgil & church fathers for guidance
-inner peace vs temptation of fame
Boccaccio (1313-1375)
-Florentine, follower of Petrarch
-wrote The Decameron
Pico
Humanism Spreads
Competition between city states, Florentines leading
- gather manuscripts, form libraries, revive almost extinct ancient Greek
Writing, rhetoric, and study of classics now essential in courts, etc.Exodus of thought & texts from Byzantium from crusades, etc. contributed to rise of humanism
Civic Humanism
Stress participation in public affairs (active lives!)
- (contrary to Augustinian fears of active lifestyles and Cicero & Petrarch's indifference on the matter)
Only by seeking higher ends for self and society can one achieve virtueEducated must share with all to benefit society and then benefit selves
Humanism's Impact
-Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) found Vatican library
-PATRONAGE
-Secular themes become more common
-works of history become more analytic
-education create a social divide
-printing books, books more available
-increase of roman law, power to one ruler
-more schools open
-vivid recreations in visual arts
-personal fame = ok (artistic and historic immortality sought freely)
-combine contemplative and active lives!
Florentine Neoplatonists (1400s)
search (w/ humanity's "natural appetite") for "ideal forms," truth and perfection again
dignity and immortality of the soul
Marsilio Ficino = Plato translation into latin for the masses
Plato was divinely illuminated (reconcilable w/ xtianity!)
Pico believed in a single truth behind all philosophies
Big Big Picture Effects
For Christian Humanism Notes, See Revival of the Papacy
An Outline Dealing with the Renaissance and its Cultural Implications
Question: “Although the term “Renaissance” is misleading, the modern world began with Renaissance secularism and individualism.” Assess the validity of this statement.
Introduction: The Italian Renaissance was decisive in the cultural progress of Western civilization and its eventual consequence would be the Protestant Reformation.
Thesis: The humanist possibility of individual cultivation and contribution altered the landscape of European society, so that it was no longer the warrior king or the religious authority that could incite political and social change; it was the intellectual or the artist. The Renaissance restored Greco-Roman educational ideals and inspired a return to the “Classics”. It made knowledge and consequently, ideas accessible to the general populace. With this new sort of education at their disposal, the people were transformed, from an ignorant collective mob into individuals, able to render individual unaffected judgments (giving birth to skepticism and disbelief-which led ultimately to the violation of the sacred and to secularization.)
-Elements of the Renaissance that first exhibit individualism and secularism: “the new learning” and the founding of humanism: rhetoric/Latin classics/classical monuments/educational reform>ability to read, understand, and appreciate ancient world
-Petrach>Francesco Petrarca: poetry, treatises/emulated Virgil/poet laureate/"My Secret"/cannot find model of virtuous behavior>must behave like and emulate ancients>A return to Greco-Roman ideals
-Boccaccio: friend and disciple of Petrarch, wrote the The Decameron with its frank treatment of sex and ordinary characters, is a celebration of the natural and secular world
-Spread of Humanism>rallying cry: Pope Nicholas V builds a library, literature contains purely secular themes & education becomes badge of superiority and thus inspires patronage of arts and letters
Pico’s humanism: “trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature” (true, Pico encourages the cultivation of the individual for the glorification of God, obviously this is not secular, although>it lays the foundation of European individualism>the individual’s potential to develop and to realize himself.) Ex.: Status and Perception: painter is no longer merely an anonymous hired craftsman as he was during the medieval period> he can achieve individual prestige and recognition.
-How does this relate to “the modern world”?
>If it weren’t for the Renaissance and its various developments, it’s likely that Martin Luther would not have had the audacity to publish his “95 Theses.” What the Renaissance ultimately sowed in Europe was the possibility of individual contribution and the advancement of society through these contributions. Despite his extreme diffidence towards the Catholic Church, Luther was still a dissenter. His individual education and wrought faculties allowed him to voice his disillusionment>the idea that he possessed greater wisdom than a collective, enlightened establishment was born of the Renaissance.
-Obviously, it was Luther’s Theses that would begin the long, pained undressing of the Catholic Church and would first incite skepticism amongst believers. They would also amplify the desire for anti-monarchial constitutions theories and undermine the hierarchic view of universe**
-It was the Renaissance ideal of pagan, intellectual veneration, even worship, for human creativity and possibility that was at the root of the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, etc. etc., all of which are crucial to the birth of the modern secular world. The Renaissance was a “rebirth” in the sense that it was a return to the values and methods of the ancient Greek and Roman Civilizations, to which the “modern world” owes so much.